


duchess of gumberly

by JayQueenofHugs (bifangirl)



Series: Dimension 20 Character Studies [4]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bifangirl/pseuds/JayQueenofHugs
Summary: She's always been obsessed with war.
Series: Dimension 20 Character Studies [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740490
Kudos: 13





	duchess of gumberly

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the Jet character study for y'all, enjoy! (ACoC 5 spoilers, end notes have ACoC 6 spoilers)

Jet is born two minutes before Ruby, a fact that she despises deep down. Not that she’d wish being heir on her twin sister, she just doesn’t want to rule a kingdom. She’d much rather be fighting, though of course she also had to have been cursed to have been born in a time of peace. Growing up in Castle Candy means far too many lessons for her to enjoy any of them. Chancellor Lapin drones on and on and she can hardly bring herself to care. She and Ruby sneak out, go to Dulcington and talk to Cirinda, get letters from Thad, toss gems at the peasants there. And oh how she wishes she could be one of them, living far away from the castle. More than anything, she wants to learn how to _fight,_ she wants to learn how to use a sword, wants to know how it feels to stab something with one. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

As she continues to grow up, the lessons she’s taught never get more interesting. She begs Theobald for combat training, for him to teach her a stunning blow at the very least. He always refuses to teach her, telling her she has to be heir. She sometimes goes to the statues of her aunts, stares at Aunt Rococoa’s statue in admiration. She’s Jet’s inspiration and Jet wants to be like her, a complete badass in combat. Screw sitting around and learning about history and etiquette, if no one will teach her how to fight then she’ll just have to teach herself. So she sharpens a candy cane and learns how to stab things with it. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

The twins sneak out again on their 18th Saint’s Day, using scarecrows to fool Lapin as he drones on and on, engrossed in his lesson. And after they’re done being lectured, when their mother goes to speak with Liam, their father walks over to them with two boxes. She hides her excitement for a moment until her father hands her the Twizzling Blade, Flickerish, her aunt Rococoa's sword. Immediately she goes to train against Theobald, all the while informing him that she'll replace him. He tells her that she can do that when she's queen but she doesn't want to be queen, she wants to be a soldier in a great war. _She's always been obsessed with war._

When their mother comes back with their father, she talks to them about the Concord and Jet desperately wracks her brain for anything she knows about it. Nothing comes to mind quickly enough and so she makes something up about notes. But it doesn’t matter because her mom tells her that they’ll be able to go to Comida for the tournament and the twins can barely contain their excitement in their interlocked pinkies. Of course, their enthusiasm is slightly curbed by the fact that there won't be time for gift shops or exploration, but the thought of a tournament is more than enough to balance that out. But later that night at the banquet, her curiosity is piqued when she witnesses Lapin sneaking out of the room. She and Liam follow him and overhear his conversation with the Sugar-Plum Fairy, something the twins and Liam keep in mind in case they need to blackmail him. It pisses Jet off when Lapin questions if her family is even worth it, though she keeps her anger in check until she has a chance to confront him. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

Then they’re on their way to Comida, Jet bothering Lapin about the Sugar-Plum Fairy while Ruby does tricks on top of the carriage. It’s supposed to be “safe and healthy and unexciting” in Ruby’s words, just a simple journey from one kingdom to another. But they’ve stopped because of a fallen tree in the road and Jet can see Theo tense up as he looks outside but there isn’t enough time to react. Jet feels Ruby collapse, tries to steady her even though she _knows_ what happened, even as she hears more arrows thudding into the carriages. She yells to Lapin to heal Ruby and climbs up on top of the carriage, laying perfectly on top of her twin to shield her. She _can’t_ lose Ruby, Ruby needs to join the circus, they need to get an apartment in Dulcington. When Lapin heals Ruby, Jet grabs her tight and hugs her before rushing into battle. She watched Theobald’s first turn in battle and she can’t believe he’s actually cool. And she’s determined to prove herself in battle, too. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

So she rushes forward, relishes the feeling of making her blade stabbing into the cheese bandit, relishes the taste of the blood she licks off of Flickerish. She sees Theobald’s shock and she hears her father’s pride. This is everything she’s always wanted, fighting has always fascinated her. The fight continues on and her father falls unconscious several times. She rushes over to him and puts her locket around his neck, glancing back in surprise as Theo blocks a blow meant for her with his shield. Maybe now he’ll give her fighting lessons. The imperial army arrives with Commander Constano Grissini at the front and he fights with her, praising her abilities in battle. And she finds that she’s proud of herself. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

After the fight she searches for a Carnish shield before she goes to talk to Liam, asking him for help in watching over Ruby. There’s no way Jet is leaving her twin without protection, not after that fight. Liam agrees and Jet goes off to talk to Grissini, partially to spy and partially because she wants to talk about combat. But Theobald repeatedly tries to get her to join them in the cramped carriage and eventually Ruby joins in. She goes into the carriage with no intention of listening to what they have to say until her father yells at them to start listening. And she listens to their explanation of magic with anger. Later, when Theobald tells the twins and Liam about Aunt Lazuli, Jet’s anger grows. So many incredible things can be done with magic but everyone is too _scared_ to accept it. Fuck the Concord, she’ll go to war if they do anything to her sister. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

At the banquet, Jet meets Thad for the first time in ten years and is instantly repulsed. She struggles through conversation with him before telling him to wait for her in an alley. He goes and she assumes he waits for her all night. In the meantime, she debates signing up for the tournament with everyone else, making sure to get their opinions and advice before doing anything. Her father tells her to sign up for the melee and she does, glad that he’s letting her participate. Before it starts, she Messages Theobald and Ruby, worried about her father, asking what to do if he goes down. The tournament starts and Jet immediately yells to Anabelle, tells her and everyone else present that she won’t marry. Maybe she brings shame to her family with her exclamation, but it seems to get Anabelle on her side and that’s all that matters in the moment. She turns and attacks Grissini, directs him towards the alley without a second thought. Anabelle runs up and joins Jet in attacking Grissini and Jet is _awed_ by her. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

For a moment, Jet is so caught up in the fighting that she doesn’t notice anything wrong with her father. But then he jumps over the fence and lies down and she _knows_ something’s happened. Scravoya jumps over after him and swings down on him as Jet watches on in horror. Even though something had been telling her to expect this, she doesn’t know what to do. Scravoya is disarmed, her father is healed, Liam finds the source of the poison, Ruby pulls out the daggers, and Jet can feel herself breath again. It’s the second time in the past week that her father has almost been killed and Jet is determined to make sure it doesn’t happen again. As they return to their chambers, she puts herself in the middle of all of her family, worried about all of them. And she comes to a decision about her future, she _will_ take the throne. And when she’s King of Candia, magic will be legal. She’ll open up a kindergarten and teach them magic. It doesn’t matter to her what the rest of Calorum thinks about magic, she’ll fight them on it if she has to. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

She and Ruby sneak out into Comida, weave through the city with Ciabatta, hop fences and search. They watch as Ciabatta expertly kills a guard and disposes of his body. The scene is gruesome, but Jet can’t deny that she’s fascinated and impressed. They find Alfredi’s lab, her secrets, her _poisons._ They find her blackmail, Ciabatta burning some papers and taking the Ceresian blackmail for himself. He’s efficient and so _cool._ They return back to the chambers, Jet and Ruby immediately gushing about everything they’d done. While they’re sharing everything they learned on their excursion, discussing everything that’s happened, there is a knock at the door. It opens and Lapin enters with dozens of knights, announces he’s there to arrest Liam, and Jet is filled with rage. She steps forward with her father, blocking Liam from view. There’s no way she’s just going to let him be arrested, she’ll stand against the knights to prevent it if need be. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

It’s tense in the chapel, the Emperor died overnight but the paperwork was never filled out. Liam is there suspected of witchcraft, standing up to say that Amethar was named successor with Theobald. Jet discreetly tries to read her banned book and find out more about the Profidian Heresy and the Ramsian Doctrine, but stops when Plumbeline claims Ciabatta was named heir. Her father and Plumbeline go to swear on Aunt Citrina’s Book of Leaves and Jet feels a brief sense of relief when Plumbeline admits to lying, only to start in shock at the Pontifex’s questions. She instinctively grabs for Ruby’s hand and flinches in surprise as she is called a bastard, as her father is excommunicated, as war is declared. She’s filled with anger as she pulls out Flickerish, determined to fight the Pontifex, completely disregarding the dangerous circumstances they’re all in. She’s out for blood, fuck the Bulbian Church and everything it’s done to her family. _She’s always been obsessed with war._

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few things to say about this series (ACoC 6 spoilers):  
> 1) I don't know how or why these keep getting longer, this one was hard to write and I was expecting it to be way shorter than this.  
> 2) All of these are going to end at the chapel scene in episode 5 mainly because that was a huge turning point. I WILL be taking into account lore or backstory revealed in later episodes. However, I WILL NOT be taking into account events or character development of later episodes.  
> 3) I don't know how I'm going to write Lapin's with the little information we know about him so his character study will be on hold until we learn more about his backstory.  
> 4) It might be a bit before I can get Ruby's out so sorry about that y'all.


End file.
